Hey people! So the majority wanted me to be nice (r) to the boys (spoilsports! lol) so here it is. That said. I ain't finished with them yet! Some Sam and Lisa to start and then the boys.

Thank you again for all the reviews. Still trying to work through them so, sorry if you haven't had a reply.

Enjoy.

"Ground rules."

Sam was sitting on the couch in Lisa's living room, watching as she paced in front of him.

"I'm doing this for Dean. It doesn't matter if he's wrong or right in the way he feels or thinks. I'm on his side. Nothing that you say or do will sway me otherwise. Understood?"

Sam nodded and tried not to smile at the small woman breathing fire in his direction.

"This is about Dean. If he comes in through that door and decides that he doesn't want to talk to you, that he wants you gone; then you're gone. No arguments."

He went to say something and she stopped him with a look. "Fine," he conceded.

"That said, I'm going to ask him to listen to what you've got to say. He needs to get this resolved, to get by what you did, because its killing him. You being gone almost killed him already. You not telling him you were back has nearly finished the job." She stared at him until he had to look away. "It took me weeks to get inside enough to get him to let me help him. You being back has unsettled him, damaged all the hard work we've put in to get him back on his feet. I want you to fix that. If you have to go down on your damn knees and grovel to him then that's what your going do."

"I can see why he likes you," Sam offered and was graced with a little smile.

"Oh I have other talents that your brother likes too," she said a little too suggestively causing Sam to blush. "I can cook," she informed him causing him to laugh and making her warm to him a little. "Amongst other things."

Sam gave a short snort. "Then I can really see why he likes you. I always wondered you know, that out of all the girls my brother's been with, why you? I think I get it now. You're honest. He likes that." He picked up the bottle of beer that she'd offered him, played with the label on it. "Why did you remember Dean?"

"I had a type. Leather jackets, a little rough and a lot ready," she chuckled.

Sam smiled. "That sounds like Dean."

"It was, but when I got him home he was different from the others."

"Different? How?"

"Don't get me wrong, Dean was there for the main event and your brother is trouble with a capital T. That was the attraction. Some of the things he wanted us to try…," she tailed off, gave a grin at the memory. Sam choked on the beer he been drinking and she held up her hand in apology. "Sorry, got caught up in the moment. Where was I? Oh yeah. You ever had a one night stand Sam?"

He nodded.

"Then you know it's all about the initial attraction, the oh my god I have to get this person into my bed thing?"

He coughed and nodded again.

"There was that with Dean, hell I slept with him within an hour of meeting him and I wasn't even drunk! He never made me feel that I was an easy lay though, the way the others did. There was no dirty talk, no talk at all at first and he made sure that I wanted to do the things we did before we did them. He was just so laid back, letting me take the reins. It was nice and he really didn't look the type to be nice. I felt safe when he was there. I can't explain it. It wasn't just the sex, it was him. He made me feel that there was nothing he rather do than spend his time with me, like I was his whole world yet he still let me know that come Monday, he'd be gone. That word you used for me, honest? That was Dean."

Sam felt something clench inside him as he looked at the expression on her face, heard the emotion in her voice as she spoke of his brother. "I thought about him a lot, especially when I found out I was pregnant with Ben. I hoped that it was him because he's such a good person under that hard ass exterior. He was kind and funny and so hot! I so wanted Ben to have those genes!" She giggled at his expression. "What? Kid could do a lot worse than be related to your brother! Ben's real dad?" She shivered. "Well let's say I was kind of gutted when it turned out it wasn't Dean. I don't believe in love at first sight Sam but your brother was the closest that I ever came to it. It's why I remembered him when he showed up at my door all those years later. Then he saved Ben and I can never repay him for that. Not ever."

Lisa paused, smile slipping as she crossed her arms over her chest and dropped in the seat opposite him. "If Dean wants to leave with you, wants to go back to hunting then I won't be happy." Sam went to speak but she stopped him, putting her hand on his. "I love your brother,." Sam's eyes widened at that one. "I do. He's hard work, don't get me wrong but once you get to see what's on the inside, he's worth it." Leaning forward she moved her hands to clasp his. "That however doesn't mean that I'd stop him leaving if that's what he really wants or needs to do. I knew that at some point you'd be back or he have to go see if he could save you. So, I've made my peace with knowing that one day Dean might not be able to stay here. That normal might get to be too much for him to cope with."

"He said that he had a life here now, that he couldn't go with me."

"He told me he wasn't leaving and if that's what Dean really wants then I expect you to let him stay, but he needs for you to be okay with that. Needs you not to cut him out of your life again the way you just did, the way you did before." Sam wondered just how much Dean had told her, her next words were his answer. "You can't ditch him again Sam. I don't think that he could take that. I need you to promise me."

He leant forward to her and squeezed her hands; looked her straight in the eye. "I promise."

Lisa cornered Dean the second he was through the door, pulling him into the kitchen and giving him a look that he just knew meant he wasn't going to get to collapse in front of the TV like he'd planned. "What have you done?"

She bit her lip. "Please don't be mad, he's just here to talk to you. To see if you can both just talk this out and get to whatever it is that's stopping you being happy your brother is back. I told him that if you want him to go then he has to go." Turning she lifted her bag off the counter. "I asked Julie was it alright if I came round but if you need me here I can stay."

"It's okay. I'm not mad." He paused. "Maybe a little. Just go. It'll be fine."

"You call me if you need me." It wasn't a question. "I'll be back by ten."

He smiled at that then kissed her. "Go."

Dean stopped in the doorway of the living room and looked across at his brother perched uncomfortably on the edge of the couch. Flight or fight. He recognised the stance.

"Not here, in the car." Dean just turned and headed for the door giving Sam the opinion of following him or getting left.

Sam looked to Lisa who was still standing in the hall and she walked to him, pulled him down to her height. "Remember what I said. You screw him up any further than he already is and I'll make you wish that you'd been left in Hell." With that she pushed past an amused Dean who was stilling standing on the porch and left.

"How long have you been here?," he asked Sam as he let his brother go by him too and then locked the door.

"All afternoon."

Dean bite his lip, tried not to laugh at the face Sam made. "Ouch," was his only comment.

They stopped by the car, Dean leaning on the roof and staring over it at his brother. "Before we do this, there's no chance of you going all fallen angel on my ass again, is there?"

Taken back a little by the question Sam shook his head. "No. Wherever Lucifer is, it's not here." He touched his chest.

"Good enough for me." Going to climb in the car Dean realised that Sam hadn't moved. "What?"

"You not going to check?"

"Nope. Just get in, before I change my mind."

They drove in silence for a while until Dean pulled into a carpark for what looked like a large lake. He drove down to the end and pulled in, turning the car to face out over the water. "Get out." He didn't wait for Sam to comply, just swung his door opened and headed for the trunk.

Sam walked round to join him, mouth dropping open as he caught a look inside. "It's empty!," he exclaimed. "What did you do with all the stuff?"

"Stored it. Apart from my hand gun and the Colt, Lisa didn't want any of it near her or in her house."

Sam took the offered beer and trailed Dean back round to the hood, waiting until his brother had sat up on it before daring to join him. "I noticed that in the house. No salt or sigils. Do you think that's wise?"

"Lisa's house, Lisa's rules. Like I said she didn't want any of it inside. Not like I didn't bring enough baggage in with me as it was."

Sam shot him a look and then took a pull of the beer. He didn't say anything about the fact that Dean's drink was a bottle of water. "So, how do you want to do this?"

"I ask. You answer. How long were you down? Hell time." Dean didn't look at him, just kept his eyes trained on the lake.

"A few months, a year. I don't know. It was all a bit of a blur time wise. Must have be two or three days our time."

Dean wiped at his lip with his hand, forced down his own memories. He tried not to think of what they must have done to his brother. "Not pretty is it?"

"No. No, it's not." Sam wanted to say he was sorry about the things he had said to Dean about whining, about being weak but he didn't think his brother was in the mood to listen.

"How did you ditch him? How did you get out?," Dean asked.

"I'm not really sure. I think they came for Michael. The angels? They took him back to Heaven. I ended up out as well somehow."

"Adam?" Dean's voice broke a little over the single word.

"I don't know what they did with him. I didn't see him or Michael the whole I was down there, only Lucifer."

"So Michael got a get out of jail free pass eh?" Dean let a little smirk work it's way onto his face. "Cas is gonna be pissed about that. Dude had just shined his badge and everything. So what happened to you after you got out?"

"I came to on Lisa's street, watching you guys eat. I don't know how I got there, one minute they were….well you know what it's like and then I was out."

"And that was the night that I got here too?"

"I didn't know that at the time, checked the paper for the date and Bobby confirmed when you'd left his. It tied in."

Dean sat up, rolled the plastic bottle in his hand. He turned to stare at Sam and his younger brother had to drop his eyes from the weight of it. "If I hadn't found out were you ever going to come tell me?"

"Yes." Sam looked back up. "I don't know when I would have, but I would have."

"Well that's comforting." Dean rested his back along the glass of the windshield and closed his eyes again. "You really hurt me. You know that? Letting me think you were still down there, it was cruel Sam. Really cruel. I didn't deserve that."

Sam swallowed round the lump in his throat. "I know, I really am sorry."

Dean sat quiet and then took a drink of his water. "Your turn."

"What?"

"You don't have questions?"

Sam shrugged. "How bad did it get?"

"Bad. I went back to the graveyard four times. Friggin' rings were burning a damn hole in my pocket. Even managed to get as far as putting them down on the grass but I couldn't do it though. That said, I couldn't put them in the store either." He dipped his hand into his pocket. "Still got them."

"Jesus Dean have you lost your damn mind, keeping them…it's like walking around with a target on you!"

"I couldn't get rid of them you understand that right? Now it's different, but these were the only sure thing I had that could get you back. I wasn't going to just lock them up somewhere and hope nobody found them!"

Sam huffed. "And what would you have done if they had found you instead?"

"Truth?" Dean rolled his head round to look at his brother. "I didn't care." Turning the rings he sighed. "Besides without the incantation these are worthless and as far I as know there are only three people, if that's the right word, that know it. You, me and Death: maybe four if you count Lucifer."

Sam slid off the car and turned to face Dean. "So what now? Where do we go from here?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I miss being out on the road but I don't miss hunting. Not at all." He huffed out a breath. "Lisa's put up with such a lot from me, she doesn't deserve me to just walk away now."

"Do you want to?," Sam asked gently.

Dean slid off the car, walked to the water's edge. "I don't think that I do."

"Lisa loves you."

"I know. She told me." The older Winchester dragged his foot through the loose soil at his feet.

Sam had to ask. "Do you love her?"

"I don't know. I think….maybe. I just feel so damn numb from everything that's happened. I don't know what I think anymore. You got somewhere to stay tonight?" Dean had obviously had enough sharing for the minute.

"No," Sam answered of the very unsubtle subject change.

"We've got a spare room," his brother offered as casually as he could. "You can crash the night with us. Meet Ben properly."

Sam must have hesitated too long.

"Don't you want to?" Dean was still staring out over the lake but the edge in his voice was clear.

"No, no. I'd like that."

Finally his brother turned to look at him. "You ever played Halo?"

"The video game?" Dean nodded and Sam shook his head. "Can't say that I have."

At last the smile that graced his brother's face reached his eyes. "Then Ben and I are so gonna kick your ass. Come on, we can pick him up and then you can come home with us."

Go home with his brother? Yeah Sam thought as he slid into the seat of car; even if it was only for a little while, he liked the sound of that.

TBC